So at some schools, Student Bar Association (SBA) funds get used for more than open bars and law school courtyard keg parties. One school in particular is conducting an audit to determine if SBA officials took school and student funds for personal use — up to and including trips, jewelry from Tiffany’s, and the single most ironic purchase of all time.
Hard to believe, since student government types are always such goody two-shoe résumé padders. Nice, service-minded people who just want to make the law school community a friendlier place. If absolute power corrupts absolutely, non-existent power should corrupt not at all. At least that’s the theory.
So what law school boasts SBA officials who might be breaking bad?
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If that didn’t give it away, the answer is obviously in Albuquerque. Yep, the University of New Mexico School of Law is looking into what happened with SBA funds last year. Our first inkling that something was wrong came yesterday when we got a copy of an email that Dean David Herring sent the student body this past Friday:
I want to bring the law school community up to date on a matter that has been developing at the Law School. In the coming days, there is likely to be a news item in the press that relates to a small number of our graduates and students in connection with their role in one of our student organizations.
Normally, the phrase “up to date” requires providing at least some details, but that was apparently asking too much. Thankfully, our tipster community kicked in and gave us some insight into the goings-on. The school believes that the SBA or some official(s) within the SBA set up an unauthorized, off-campus bank account, then started depositing funds into this account. Severed from campus oversight, this off-campus account could be used as a personal slush fund, and indeed, it looks like around $11,000 made its way into (and largely out of) this account. Given that New Mexico is a public school, these funds would include taxpayer dollars, thus raising the stakes of the possible criminality.
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We reached out to the school for comment, but before receiving word, the Albuquerque Journal published a story, based on interviewing the intrepid student who filed the state equivalent of a FOIA request to find out what the school knew and when it knew it:
The bank statements show a number of cash withdrawals within a two-week period in April 2012. For example, a withdrawal of $303 was made on April 15 from a Central Avenue location. Another withdrawal of $300 was made at a Lomas Avenue facility three days later; another for $143 on April 24 from a Menaul address; and yet another on April 26 for $300, also from the Lomas address.
The records list withdrawals made through April of this year.
Several expenditures were made from establishments that sell alcohol: the Zinc Wine Bar and Bistro, the Ferrari Carano Winery, Jubilation Wine and Spirits, Kelly’s Brewery and O’Niell’s Pub – two of which were made on the same day. One was for $254, the other for $331.
While the off-campus account seems fishy, it’s entirely possible that these charges constitute legitimate SBA business. Getting students drunk is 90 percent of the SBA’s job, right?
Other expenditures were made at hotels and restaurants, including a Hyatt Hotels Resort and Spa, Starbucks and Korean BBQ House. Most were made in Albuquerque, but some were in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Um… maybe conferences? Yeah, this is getting hard to defend. Whichever junior politico ran this account needs to start practicing a speech about how much they love Checkers.
Other expenditures were for utilities, including the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority and New Mexico Gas Co., and retail stores, such as a Target and Tiffany’s in San Francisco.
There also was an $80 payment to Betty’s Bath and Day Spa.
Maybe at Target they were buying new chairs for the school.
Two $70 payments went toward registration fees for the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam, an ethics test that aspiring lawyers must pass before they take the state bar exam.
The irony meter is in the red.
The investigation continues, and the police are aware of the audit and awaiting the results. I’m sure this is all just a minor, almost $11,000 mix-up, and not the case where some SBA official decided to make it rain with some sweet, sweet student money.
But the most pressing question in the investigation is what will happen to UNM’s impressive #26 showing in the ATL Law School Rankings when they have to revise the employment statistics to include “jailbird”?
If you want to rifle through all the emails and receipts produced in response to the information request, they are available on the next page, along with Dean Herring’s email.